Sperryville spire to remain ‘Sky Blue’

Supervisors hope monopole’s unique ‘color would fade with time’

So it doesn’t appear as if Sperryville’s towering “Sky Blue” telecommunications monopole erected earlier this year will get repainted after all.

“The topic of the Sperryville tower color was on the May 6, 2019 Board [of Supervisors] meeting agenda,” Rappahannock County Administrator Garrey W. Curry noted this week. “While there was no formal action taken by the Board, there was general consensus to take no action to alter the color, believing that the color would fade with time.”

The “color” Curry’s referring to could best be described — or so it was by Supervisor Christine Smith at April’s meeting of the BOS, her Piedmont District home to the county’s first-of-its-kind transmission spire — as “very Sky White,” standing out markedly against the green wilderness backdrop of Shenandoah National Park.

The supervisors had earlier agreed to paint the new tower “Sky Blue” to appease its nearest neighbors on Woodward Road, who view the monopole looking east into the sky. Those neighbors told this newspaper days after the tower was erected that they would be promptly selling their house and moving, concerned about potential impacts its transmissions could have on their health.

Following separate grumbling by surrounding Rappahannock residents about the monopole’s unique color, Curry agreed to look into having the tower repainted, which could have been accomplished without holding any public hearings. But there would be a price tag.

Arlington-based Community Wireless Structures, which erected the monopole to support a public safety paging system and equipment for internet and cell service providers, sought three prices for the county, the lowest $25,555. This after CWS just paid $12,000 to have the tower painted Sky Blue in the factory.